Piano action



A. P. BROWN Feb. 20, 1951 PIANO ACTION Filed Dec. 23, 1947 Wail/l2 Patented Feb. 20, 1951 UNITED S TATES PATENT OFFlCE PIANO ACTION 7 Alexander P. Brown, Beechhurst, N. Y.

Application December 23, 1947, Serial No. 793,343

6 Claims.

' This invention relates to piano actions used in vertically stringed piano.

The improvement consists in providing direct blow vertically stringed piano action with means for allowing the hammer action to be set lower in a piano case by a built up wippen construction to bring up the wippen and key lever contact surface above the level of the wippen flange pivot, and for keeping the key and wippen contact point at a minimum friction and in a mean kinetic line position of least resistance namely, a built up wippen, with the key motivating contact point substantially above the wippen flange pivot level to enable a shortening of the connecting arm of the key; in an improved construction wherein the spoon is visible from the top of the action, and in making it accessible for regulation and easy repairs, which can be visibly regulated from the top of the action, eliminating the necessity of removing the action out of the piano case in order to make the spoon regulation. The key lever and the action has no locked contact, therefore, either the action, or the keys, may be readily and easily lifted out of the piano without disturbing any of its adjustment or regulation; an improvement consisting in providing the butt of the hammer with a laterally extending shoulder to engage the spoon which is supported by the damper lever and is substantially at right angles to the damper lever to activate the damper head; and a spring interposed between the butt and damper lever, in order to quickly move the butt so that the hammer quickly moves away from the string into its rebound position, this rapid action resulting from a stored energy in the spring transposed through the spoon on to the butt to quickly return the hammer to its rebound and rest position, thereby to eliminate the bridle wire and bridle tape; and in providing a shoulder on the wippen to limit its down movement and thus prevent the jack from dropping below the butt jack cushion, when any of the keys or the action is lifted out of the piano case.

The invention will be further described hereinafter, an embodiment shown in the drawings, and the invention will be finally pointed out in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings,

Fig. 1 is a side view of a piano action embodying the invention, the full lines showing the at rest position of the hammer and the dotted lines showing the rebound position;

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary side view of parts taken out of Fig. 1, corresponding to the rest position of the hammer;

Fig. 3 is a similar view but with the position of the parts corresponding to the moment when the hammer is striking the string; and

Fig. 4 is a detail fragmentary view with the wippen broken away, and cooperating with the piano key extension lever.

Similar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts throughout the various views.

Referring to the drawings, the rail II! supports at one of its upper corners I I, a detachable flange I2 to which is pivoted at :3, the hammer butt I5 having the hammer shank I4. The other upper corner I6 supports a detachable flange IT to which is pivoted at It a damper lever 20 having a spoon I9 secured thereto, which spoon extends generally at right angles of the damper lever 20,

at least the damper lever 26 and spoon l9 form an elbow lever (Fig. 2) shown in dotted lines 26a pivoted at IS. The pivot points I3 and 18 are on the same line it substantially horizontal. A spring 21 is disposed between the damper lever 2i] and butt I5.

The butt [5 is formed like an elbow lever shown in dot dash line I5a (Fig. 2) cooperating with the aforesaid right angle or elbow lever 26a. At the other side of the pivot of the butt i5 an abutment .level 250- (Fig. 2) formed by the construction dotted line position of the keys in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 shows the position of the parts, corresponding to that moment when the hammer is striking the string before its back check rebound (as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 1).

On the same rail Iii but at its lower end 26, a

detachable flange 2? supports and pivots a wippen 3U, pivoted at 28. The body of the wippen 39 is built up to a contact level 29, which is substantially above the level of the flange pivot 28. The wippen 30 is preferably cut out at its upper edge to form a groove 30a to accommodate the lower end of the jack 25 pivoted to the wippen 30 at 3| (Fig. 4).

Substantially at right angles to the longitudinal line of the wippen 3i] and in the embodiment, extending upwardly is an abutment or shoulder 35, which, when it abuts against the flange 21 of rail I0, limits the downward movement of the wippen and of the jack 25, so that the upper end of the jack 25 may not go below the butt jack cushion felt 5|], in fact the upper end should descend only about midway of the vertical side of the butt jack cushion felt 50, when the key is taken out of the piano or when the action with the rail Ill is lifted from the piano itself. This shoulder 35 on the wippen 30 obviates the need of bridle straps, since one function of a bridle strap is to control the level of the upper end of the jack, and the other function is to pull back the hammer through the action of the damper spring, and the weight of the wippen. The shoulder 35 prevents the jack 25 from dropping below the butt jack cushion. In the drawings a slight space is shown between the shoulder 35 and flange 21, which allows a limited movement of the wippen 30.

A spring 32 is pivoted to the wippen 30 at 53 and is disposed between the jack 25 and the wippen 30, to control the jack.

The vertically aligned rail In With its hammer butt pivot l3 and its lower wippen pivot 28, has in effect two laterally extending levers, joined by t e vertical lever formed by the jack 25 at its pivot 3| and at butt contact on the buckskin 8|. This is in the nature of a parallelogram. The key contact point 54 on the wippen is above the level of the wippen flange pivot 28 with the vertical line of the jack 25 in line with the pivot 3| and said contact point 54.

Substantially parallel to the jack 25 is a back check wire 45 fixed to the end of the wippen 30 having its lower end supported by the free or unpivotcd end of the wippen 30 and its upper end provided with a back check 4| having a buckskin layer 4|a to engage the belted back stop 42 of a neck 43 of the butt I5. The buckskin layer lla and felt 42 engage each other. This back check action prevents the hammer from striking the strings more than one time for each finger stroke on the key.

Under the old style invisible spoon action the damper lever spring exerts a pressure on to the upper portion of the damper lever, transferring this pressure to its lower portion exerting it on to the spoon, which is in the wippen, thence to the bridle wire, thence to the bridle tape, thus urges the return of the hammer. In the improved visible spoon construction the spring action is such that the lower portion of the right angle construction or this damper lever 20 with the spoon 19 reaches under the rear butt portion 45 and exerts this spring pressure directly on the butt and urges a faster hammer return; this improved construction eliminates the need of the usual bridle tape and bridle wire.

A further improvement is the construction of the key operated wippen. By the contact surface 22 in the wippen 30, the contact of the button cloth 54 with the wippen 3|) is raised, and the underkey extension arm 56 supporting the button cloth 54 and supported by the key 51, ismade shorter thus eliminating the objectionable flexibility of the old style. This arm 56 is secured to the rear bottom end of the key 51 by regulating screws 58, a knuckle 58a allowing for adjustment. The key 57 is pivoted on the pin 59 of the key rail an, and seats normally on the pad 6| of the rail 62. Thus by depressing the front of the key 51, the arm 56 is raised to its dotted line position 56a.

The improved parts as described are shown combined with parts old and well known. The rail 65 has the adjustable screw 66 With its felt pad 61. The hammer shank M on the butt l5 supports the hammer 68 which rests against the movable hammer rail 69 with its felt pad 1|],operable by a pedal (not shown). The damper rail II is moved by the pedal operated vertical dowel 12. The damper l3 with its felt I4 is supported by the damper lever rod 15, and is adjustable by the screw adjustment T6.

In Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic fragmentary view of the parts corresponding to the full line position of Fig. 1, and in Fig. 3 the same parts as in Fig. 2 are shown correspondin to the position of the parts when the hammer is in striking contact with the string 11.

In Fig. 2, the vertical or long part 2|c of the spring 2| has a heavy pressure which regulates the hammer with a light pressure, and the horizontal or short part 2|a of the spring 2| which is pivoted to the butt |5 by a pin or the like, in a suitable cutout 55a to accommodate the entrance of the arm 2|a of the spring, has light pressure which regulates the damper with a heavier pressure. A convolution or turn 2|b is disposed between the long arm 21a and the short arm Zia. The free end of the spring arm 2|c is merely inserted into the upper portion port 2|d of the damper lever 2|]. Thus a frictionless and squeakless spring is provided by the floating convolution.

In Fig. 2 the operating surface of the spoon I9 is slightly above the dotted kinetic line 18 with suitable space between the surface of the spoon l9 and the butt felt 80. The rest position of the mean motion of the top of the jack 25 contacting the buckskin 8| of the butt |5 covering reinforcing felts 82, is somewhat below the dotted line 78.

In Fig. 3 corresponding to the hammer touching the string, the operating surface of the spoon is slightly below the said line 18, with no space between spoon l9 and felt 80. The top of jack 25 is out of contact with the butt and is somewhat above the line 18. The butt buckskin 8| is above the line. It will be noted that when in string contact position of Fig. 3, the hammer shank l4 and the damper lever 20 are generally parallel with each other (Fig. 3) with the top of the rail ID as a base in contrast to the divergent rest position shown in Fig. 2. Thus, the spoon IS on the damper lever 20 under-the control of the operators depressed finger storing up the energy in the convolution '2lb of the spring 2|, the parts take the position shown in Fig. 3

momentarily. The hammer 68 then rebounds to the dotted line back checked position of Fig. 1. When the performers finger releases the key the stored up energy acts upon the damper lever and its spoon and quickly returns the hammer 58 from the dotted line position shown in Fig. l to its full line'rest position.

The novelty is (a) the built up contact level 29 of the wippen 30 to raise the contact felt 54 with the underkey rocker extension lever arm 56 to shorten the key arm, the contact point being above the level of the pivot of the wippen flange; (b) the spoon visible and regulated from thetop of the action; (0) the butt damper activating shoulder foot 45 on butt l5 which acts upon the visible spoon l9 at right angles to the damper lever 20, storing up energy in the spring 2 I; and (d) the shoulder 35 on the wippen 30 to limit the movement of the wippen 30 and to prevent the jack 25 from dropping below the butt jack cushion.

Certain subject matter is being claimed in a divisional application filed June 2, 1949, under Serial No. 96,794.

I wish to be understood that I do not desire to be limited to the exact details of construction shown and described, for obvious modifications will occur to a person skilled in the art.

I claim:

1. In a piano action, an action rail, flanges on the upper portion of the rail, a hammer butt pivoted to one of said flanges, said butt having a rear laterally extending damper activating shoulder, a damper lever pivoted to the other of said flanges, and a spoon lever on said damper lever and extending from the damper lever to the hammer butt shoulder across the top of the rail, whereby the shoulder of the butt activates the spoon and its damper lever, the said spoon being visible from the top of the action, easily accessible from above the action, and conveniently regulatable from the top of the action.

2. In a piano action the combination of hammer butt having a laterally extending shoulder, a damper lever, a spoon lever on said damper lever and extending under said butt shoulder, said spoon lever being substantially at right angles to the damper lever, and a frictionless two legged spring having a free floating junction, the legs exerting pressure on the damper lever and thus on said spoon lever transposing the spring pressure to the butt in order to quickly move the butt so that the hammer quickly moves away from the string into its rebound backcheck position, while the key is depressed, and on release of the key the said spring quickly moves the hammer to rest position.

3. In a piano action, a hammer butt, a damper lever, a spoon lever on the damper lever extending towards and in contact with the butt, and a spring disposed between the damper lever and the butt and one end acting on the butt and the other end acting on the damper lever, whereby the damper lever with the spoon transposes the spring pressure through the said spoon directly on to the butt, to facilitate a faster hammerreturn from its string striking position.

4. In a space saving piano action the combination of hammer butt having a laterally extending damper lever spoon activating shoulder and a back stop shoulder, a pivoted wippen, a jack actuated by the wippen for operating the butt, a back check lever on said wippen, operating on the back stop shoulder, a damper lever,a spoon lever on said damper lever and extending under said activating shoulder, said spoon lever being substantially at right angles to the damper lever, and a frictionless spring having a free floating convolution exerting pressure on the damper lever and said spoon lever transposing the spring pressure to the butt in order to quickly move Number the butt so that the hammer quickly moves away from the string into its rebound backcheck position, while the key is depressed, and on release of the key the said spring quickly moves the hammer to rest position.

5. In a piano action having a hammer butt with a pivotal supporting connection, the combination of a jack the tip of which is adapted to abut and contact with a surface of said butt on one side of said pivotal connection, a damper spoon having its spoon surface adapted to abut and contact with a surface of said butt on the other side of said pivotal connection, and a damper lever supporting said damper spoon, and having a pivotal supporting connection, said butt pivotal connection and damper lever pivotal connection being disposed in one line, and at the hammer rest position of said butt, the jack tip butt contacting surface and the spoon surface being disposed on said line, and at the hammer striking position of said butt, the spoon surface butt contact surface being disposed along said line, and a spring havin one end on the butt and one end on the damper lever, for returning the butt to rest position after the striking of the hammer.

6. In a piano action, the combination of a hammer butt, a back stop formed as a unit with said butt, a damper lever, a spoon lever on the damper lever extending towards and in contact with said butt, a wippen, a wire supported by the wippen, a back check on the free end of the wire, adapted to engage the back stop on the butt, and a knee action elbow spring, one end acting on the butt and one end acting on the damper lever, whereby a bridle strap is not essential between the back stop and the back check.

ALEXANDER P. BROWN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Name Date 498,523 Osterberg et al. May 30, 1893 1,090,192 Blessing Mar. 1'7, 1914 1,184,181 Holden May 23, 1916 1,342,029 Ong June 1, 1920 1,714,022 Hale May 21, 1929 1,748,777 Laukandt Feb. 25, 1930 2,096,478 Bond Oct. 19, 1937 2,109,192 Davis Feb. 22, 1938 2,123,526 Davidson July 12, 1938 

